As District 3 Lubbock City Council candidates prepare for a rematch in a June 14 runoff, former District 1 candidate Frank Gutierrez hopes to keep his challenge against Councilman Victor Hernandez alive.

But it could cost him.

Gutierrez, who threatened to call for a recount after coming in second behind Hernandez in a three-way race for the District 1 City Council seat Saturday, would have to hand over a $4,000 deposit just to get the process started if he wanted a full recount, Lubbock City Secretary Becky Garza said Monday afternoon.

While Gutierrez contemplates requesting a recount, Garza’s office is moving forward with vote canvassing and a swearing-in ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday for Hernandez, Mayor Glen Robertson, who was unopposed, and District 5 Councilwoman Karen Gibson, who defeated Brian Carr in her re-election bid.

And Hernandez is moving forward with plans to continue his more than 15 years on the council.

“I really don’t have any plans not to be sworn in Monday,” Hernandez said.

District 1

Hernandez appeared to narrowly avoid a runoff by topping 50 percent of the vote by about seven ballots in a race where 1,267 were cast, according to an unofficial results from the Lubbock County Office of Elections.

“We are definitely going to do a recount,” Gutierrez said Monday evening, adding he may file the paperwork Tuesday.

Hernandez had 50.59 percent or 641 votes, with Gutierrez at 37.65 percent or 477 and Lana Bear Moore at 11.76 percent or 149 of 1,267 votes.

Officials will canvas the results later this week, which will include yet-to-be-counted provisional and mail-in ballots.

While there’s a procedure to recount in city races where there’s a difference of five or few votes between candidates, Garza said the difference between Hernandez and the next-closest candidate is far too great.

She consulted the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which advised her of Gutierrez’s options:

1. Request a recount, which he’d have to pay for.

2. File a civil lawsuit challenging the election results.

3. File a criminal complaint with the Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, which would not change the election results.

The cost of a recall could vary, Garza said, but the secretary’s office would require a deposit of $100 to process each voting center and $100 for early voting. With 39 voting centers, a full recall would require a $4,000 deposit. But Gutierrez said he will request a recount on about 10 boxes.

Garza said a recount could either be computer-driven or manual, with people counting ballots on the computer voting machines.

Hernandez said he’s not concerned a recount will change the results of the election.

“I would be more concerned if we were dealing with paper ballots,” Hernandez said. “But we’re dealing with electronic voting.”

Gutierrez, in a message on his Facebook page, wrote he’s also challenging the results of the election because, he believes, the voting process was “less than credible” because one of the voting centers was at St. Joseph Catholic Church, the church Hernandez attends.

Asked to elaborate on his concern, Gutierrez declined to comment, adding he plans to issue a news release after talking with legal counsel.

Using the Lubbock County Republican party Facebook page, Chairman Carl Tepper solicited donations to help cover the cost of the recount.

Gutierrez’s most recent campaign finance report showed his campaign had $755.59 in cash on hand. The Texas Ethics Commission rules for candidates does not address using campaign funds for such a purpose.

Of Gutierrez’s questioning the integrity of the election, Hernandez on Saturday said he had “no idea what he’s referring to.”

“That’s going to be between him and the elections office,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re going to move forward.”

District 3

Deanne Clark and Jeff Griffith want to talk with Maurice Stanley after besting him in Saturday’s municipal election.

His endorsement, both candidates said, couldn’t hurt as they move forward in the monthlong extension of their campaigns to serve Central Lubbock on the City Council.

Political activist Clark led the three-way District 3 City Council race with 38.56 percent of the vote, with businessman Griffith getting 33.31 percent of the 1,714 votes cast.

Stanley, a Lubbock barber, came in third with 28.12 percent, according to the Office of Elections.

Stanley said both candidates called him in the days after the election, but he’s still pondering who to endorse.

Both Clark and Griffith admitted to talking with Stanley and plan to do so again in the near future, with both telling the Avalanche-Journal there are key areas where they and the barber see eye-to-eye.

Stanley said he wants to endorse a candidate who he feels will best champion his calls to take care of city infrastructure and not be afraid to raise taxes to do so.

“The best return on investments is keeping neighborhoods strong and schools strong, and we can’t do that by neglecting the infrastructure around them,” he said.

Clark and Griffith said they plan to analyze results from Saturday’s election, seeing where they received their support and where they have work to do.

“We’re going to have a full campaign and we’re going to do everything we have to do to bring people out,” she said.

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When I saw the Early Voting results at 7 Saturday night, I told the group by me.....I wouldn't be surprised if something happened later to push VICTOR over the top. After a two-hour wait, it happened, as I had predicted.

Did you notice the wording in Adam Young's article above: "vote by about seven ballots in a race where 1,267 were cast." About? ABOUT??? When I comes to elections, I don't like the uncertainty here. I thought elections were about numbers, not estimates.

@ LuckyMe: "When a count Is that close, a recount should be automatic."

You are aboslutely right, Lucky.

@otimio vasquez: "you lost 2x already, if he wins by 1 vote, his still the winner."

And what if that "1 vote" is a tampered, hacked vote? With this electronic voting machines, all it takes is ONE corrupt individual to alter election results. We are FOOLS if we continue to put up with this machines with any kind of verification.

Another problem is the undereducated BECKY GARZA. SAM MEDINA, ANITA BURGESS and LEE ANN DUMBAULD are gone. We should continue the sweep and fire BECKY GARZA, whose lack of election knowledge has been a huge detriment to our community.

Election Code Sec. 212.112. AMOUNT OF DEPOSIT. The amount of the recount deposit is:
(1) $60 for each precinct in which regular paper ballots were used; and
(2) $100 for each precinct in which an electronic voting system was used.

BECKY GARZA, the business-school educated $ 100,000 per year + City employee, interprets the Election Code any way she wants. That was clear last year when GORDON HARRIS turned in over 1,000 signatures to recall Councilman FLOYD PRICE, when only 509 were required, and BECKY found a way to deny it, and deny the will of the voters.

It is high time that we have qualified people running this City.
Your point is exactly right, TESHAW.....for 11 precincts, the total would be $ 1100. Of course, dear BECKY will count the fake precinct 132, which had no votes and no voters, so that would be
$ 1200. Still, a far cry from $ 4000. How does she get away with this crap?

I had the pleasure of witnessing the District One Summit last night. Lots of discussion and exchange of ideas.

Here is the statement issued by Lana Bear Moore and Victor Hernandez:

Today, Lana Bear Moore announced her endorsement of City Council person Victor Hernandez. "As a citizen of District One, Mr. Hernandez will work for the betterment of the entire District. As my Council person and my friend, I will give 100% of my support."

Opinionated, You explained that $4000 deposit. I never thought about voting anywhere but my usual precinct place. Glad I did; they were lonely! Thought they were closed when I drove up.

Frank Gutierrez spent a lot of time and effort on this, from the recall petitions to campaigning, Seems a shame if he doesn't follow through and request a recount.

Other hand, I got real irritated by all those mail outs and phone calls from the Texas Realty PAC asking me to vote for Gutierrez and so voted for Hernandez. That's my rule now; when outside money and support comes in, I vote for the other candidate!

On the gripping hand, a recount will likely make no difference. From what I understand of Gutierrez' complaint, he is saying the presence of a ballot box at Hernandez' home church was an unfair advantage. He has a point that we need to remember for other elections -- no ballot boxes in churches! But that will make no difference in a recount.

Also, didn't Gutierrez have representatives on hand at St. Joseph's to watch over proceedings -- poll watchers?

As I remember, Otimio and the other LKB stalwarts were singing quite a different tune when the clown-like Al Gore had lost to George W Bush in Florida, and was demanding recount after recount after recount. None of them was chanting "Give it up, you lost" then. They wanted more recounts to hide enough cheating to put old "Green Al" into the WH.

Bush stole the 2000 election. The highest authority on Florida election law was the Florida Supreme Court and they should have had the final say. It took the U.S. Supreme Court -- a court packed with Republicans -- illegally stepping in to hand the victory to Geo W.

Heinlein fits in no category. Yes, Starship Troopers has a definite "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" vibe, but read Stranger in a Strange Land before you print out a label for him. Heinlein has a lot of ideas, and he's not afraid to put them out there. For every resounding call to "Death and Destruction" in the nation's (or planet's) service come book-length paeans to "grokking" and body odor.

The Forever War is definitely Starship Troopers through the lens of Vietnam, but it is aimed at the book, not at the author. Ender's Game, and especially Speaker for the Dead, have softer edges, but I doubt that you and Orson Scott Card have much in common when it comes to political philosophy.

Edited to add: You can't judge originals like Heinlein against writers that came much later. I once recommended Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op stories to a friend who likes the hard-boiled detective genre. When I asked him what he thought, he said that they were OK, but "kind of cliched." I guess it is true, now, but it's not Hammett's fault!

@ Lubbock Left: "I had the pleasure of witnessing the District One Summit last night. Lots of discussion and exchange of ideas. Here is the statement issued by Lana Bear Moore and Victor Hernandez:
Today, Lana Bear Moore announced her endorsement of City Council person Victor Hernandez. 'As a citizen of District One, Mr. Hernandez will work for the betterment of the entire District. As my Council person and my friend, I will give 100% of my support.' "

What in the Devil is the "District One Summit"?

It is always disappointing to watch people you have believed in sell out. Kenny, you use the name "Lubbock Left". I know you consider yourself progressive, as do I.

How is it "progressive" to give your unflinching support to a man who votes almost 100% to give MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in hard-earned taxpayer money to the McDOUGAL machine, who then in turn fund the Republican Party-Tea Party headquarters and give money to the likes of RANDY NEUGEBAUER and SARAH PALIN? Ultimately, that is our tax and "Hidden Fee" money being donated to causes that many of us object to. And it would be one thing if it were excess money that we could afford. But VICTOR casts these votes KNOWING FULL WELL the burdens he is putting on his constituents, most of whom are poor, elderly, minority, fixed-income folks.

LANA BEAR MOORE ran a campaign which stressed those burdens. O yes, it is so very nice to "Come together" and "get behind the winner". It makes you feel good. However, that is for normal times. These are NOT normal times. As Shakespeare once wrote, "The times are out of joint."

VICTOR has declared his support, in public, at a Forum sponsored by the Liberty group at St. John's Methodist, for the following:

1) a BILLION DOLLAR electric generating plant. He refuses to consider any other viable options, like selling LP&L electric division or buying energy from XCEL, like the rest of the South Plains area does. Why? So a handful of people can make tens of millions of dollars in profits from the generating plant?

2) a $ 100 MILLION DOLLAR pipeline to the Robert County well field. Again, no other options considered. When Lubbock spent hundreds of millions to build a pipeline to the potential dry hole of Lake Alan Henry, it was the.....yes, once again, McDOUGALs who made quite a pile of money bullying landowners and ranchers and farmers to sell their land.

3) a $ 60 MILLION DOLLAR new police station. Again, no other options considered. FRANK's idea of police substations, on the precinct plan, which AUSTIN uses very well, should be considered. It could result in tens of millions in savings, plus save on gas and wear and tear on police vehicles, plus improve police-community relations. Again, no other options considered. Just build a new one, and some contractor benefits while the rest of us suffer.

4) a NEW CITY HALL. This came out of left field, as the saying goes. NO ONE else mentioned this....we have a perfectly good City Hall that is convenient to most citizens. VICTOR surprsied everyone when he mentioned this.

5) and, last but not least, "THE MONORAIL TO NOWHERE". AUSTIN just considered a "light rail system" and the project cost? 1.2 BILLION.
No telling how much a monorail could cost us, but it would go into the hundreds of millions. All this for what? No potential ridership.....just another crazy idea to come from.....O yes, the McDOUGALs again, who will somehow profit from it, just like they would have profited from giant ads on the sides of buildings Downtown. VICTOR's take? The monorail is "visionary" like the establishment of Texas Tech. O REALLY?

YOU CAN'T SUPPORT VICTOR and CLOSE RANKS and GET BEHIND THE WINNER without also supporting all of the above. And don't foget, VICTOR, the Councilman from LP&L, has declared his support for more rate increases from LP&L. No relief, like the people demanded, but more increases. Unquestioningly. Of course, he also votes for every salary increase for LP&L and City employees, no matter how unjustified.

And how are all of these BILLIONS to be funded? The dishonest way of dealing with property taxes perfected by the SITTON-McDOUGAL-MARTIN regimes? "Hold the line" on property tax, and lay it all on "Hidden Fees". TOMMY GONZALEZ took that principle to IRVING, and they wound up with the highest fees in Texas. If BILLIONS are to be raised by FEES, we could wind up with $ 1000 LP&L bills.

And why did the voters abandon their REFORM principles this year, the REFORM principles that elected GLEN ROBERTSON, JIM GERLT and LATRELLE JOY in 2012? Republicans just HAD to support self-declared "Rebublican" KAREN GIBSON over the big bad Democrat in District 5, and Democrats just HAD to support self-declared "Democrat" VICTOR HERNANDEZ over the big bad Republican in District 1. No principles, no ethics at work here, just MINDLESS party loyalty with no regard for voting records, public projects, or Corporate Welfare. PArty tags mean nothing here.....KAREN and VICTOR vote to raise fees, salaries, and taxes to fund Corporate Welfare and their projects, without regard for any party loyalty or platform.

How are your "progressive" principles or Democratic Party allegiance to mean anything if you support this kind of program?
Face this, KENNY and LANA and the voters of Districts 1 and 5.....a good percentage of the people of Lubbock have trouble paying their LP&L bills now. When those bills go to $1000 or so, that will EXCEED the total income of a large percentage of Lubbock citizens.

The current Councilmen, who have no conscience, don't worry about that. They only seem to care about City and LP&L employees and the Corporate Special Interests. So much for the REFORM surge of 2012.
Because of stupid political party loyalties, now we seem to be stuck with two of the worst on the Council, and we shall see where party loyalties come down in the common-sense decision between the sensible and well-grounded DEANNE CLARK and the self-proclaimed "light-rail" advocate JEFF GRIFFITH.

As a minority, it distresses me no end to see our minority populations misled, and used and abused to the extent that is going on. They are being misled into voting against their own self-interests, a phenomenon that seems unique to America. In other industrialized nations, people realize what their true interests and beliefs are and organize and vote accordingly.

The City of IRVING learned their lesson before it was too late. Lubbock apparently has not. MIKE LEACH coming to town today underscores the fact that Lubbock usually shoots itself in the foot, over and over again. What I read today in these posts underscores it again.

Have a "dark night of the soul", as Lord Byron would say, Lubbock people. Review your actions to square with your beliefs. BE CONSISTENT!

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Jonathan Swift "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Groucho Marx

I think it is The Cat Who Walks Through Walls where he goes on about "skunky" women? I definitely didn't grok that. Is that also the book with the "tau drive"? The tau drive is either the laziest or most ignorant use of science by a hard-core sci-fi author ever.

I love SiaSL though. And his gung-ho books are a guilty pleasure for me. "The Puppet Masters" was a convincing argument for justifiable genocide. By the end I was ready to sign up and kill slugs.

"People of District 1, I am ashamed that I allowed political contributions and personal financial help to my family to affect my votes on the City Council. I am ashamed that I supported the McDOUGAL and ISOM families to the detriment of tens of thousands of Lubbock citizens, especially the thousands in my District. I apologize that my votes have increased unfairly the burdens on the majority of my constituents, and made their lives much, much harder. I apologize for my unwavering support of LP&L and the Corporate Welfare boondoggles that have hurt my constituents. In the future, I shall vote with the people and against these Special Interests."

THAT is the ONLY way that people of conscience could declare their support for VICTOR.

Can the electronic voting machines be tampered with. Yes, and there were flaws in the Diebold voting machines which could be hacked. This hacking was exposed and made differences in the 2004 Presidential elections in both Ohio and Florida. There were hearings, a person who was involved or knew about some of the hacking testified before a committee, and it was quietly hushed up and swept under the carpet by the usual suspects

Because of these controversies Lubbock did not choose the Diebold voting machines when they decided to go with electronic voting.

It is possible the Lubbock machines could be tampered with, but with the combined monetary resources of ALL of the candidates in District 1, would not be enough to pay a hacker to engage in this small time election.......

@Obviousman: "It is possible the Lubbock machines could be tampered with, but with the combined monetary resources of ALL of the candidates in District 1, would not be enough to pay a hacker to engage in this small time election......."

Obviousman, are the discounting the tens of thousands given by the McDOUGALs and ISOMs and their minions and cronies? Do you REALLY think they would hesitate, when MILLIONS are on the line?

We don't even know how much the McDs made on the Lake Alan Henry land acquistion debacle. That was kept very quiet. The new "Master Developer" contract is just under ONE MILLION. LEDA headquarters in the Well Fargo Building, managed by the McDs. The new Godeke LIbrary was a McD listing, hence more money. Ever wonder why the City leaders are so hyterical about building an electric generation plant? How many millions wil go to cronies from that project? Ever wonder why MARC McDOUGAL and CLAYTON ISOM were so hysterical about serving on the EUB? Money to be made.

To suggest that VICTOR or FRANK or LANA would directly do it is absurd. VICTOR's allies would do it for him, because he is such a dependable vote for CRONYISM and CORRUPTION.